Any way to get the woodgrain back on a painted guitar?

Question

i have an old(er) guitar that i recently painted (and by recently, i mean like 5 months ago) and i am thinking about doing something different. (if my dad lets me anyways :P)

im not sure, but i think the paint has ruined the pre-existing woodgrain that used to be there, but if it has, is there any way to get it back or make a new one?

what im going for is a nice cherryburst, just like this picture: http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p312/JERMDADDY/Epiphone/LesPaulCustomFlameTopHeritagecherry.jpg

is there any kind of "sticker" woodgrain that i could just put onto the guitar and paint over it or something similar? or is there something i could do to bring it back? because i dont think it will really be there after i sand the new paint off.

Answer 1

If the guitar is made of solid wood and there was nice grain before, it should come back when you sand it.  Even if it has a maple cap like the guitar in the picture, it should be thick enough to sand the paint off.  Just don't go crazy and take like a quarter inch off or anything.

Answer 2

mabe sand it.

Answer 3

sand the paint off and see what's left.

Answer 4

use paint thinner to take off most of the paint that you can then sand it , working your way up in the grits to the finer ones and you should get your grain back then you can use your cherry stain and some varnish

Answer 5

You have a couple of options!  If you get back to wood - you can re-stain the guitar.

If you want a more "specialized custom" look, there are amazing  techniques now to get any kind of woodgrain look with paint that you would like - people do this to walls now and it's really awesome - I'll link you to instructions.  (Basically, the only "special" tool you'll need is a "rocker" tool with a wood grain type stamp or even a "tick" comb can put wood lines into paint to make it look realistic).  

Good Luck!

Answer 6

If you take it to a pro they can strip the old paint and you will still have the grain at the bottom. Now for making that burst also a pro. It would probably be cheaper to buy a nice used guitar like the one you pictured

Answer 7

The wood grain goes all the way through the wood, so I don't understand your concern about the wood grain being gone. There are chemicals that can be used to strip wood, and you could sand the guitar. Either way, you could ruin it...

Good luck!